I would say that 75 percent of the things that people promise when they are running for office are not their job and they can't do them.

Birmingham City Council candidates can promise whatever the like on the campaign trail, but once behind the council dais, the Mayor-Council Act determines what they can deliver. (Tamika Moore | tmoore@al.com)

If she tells you that she'll clean up the park in your
district, perhaps you should pick up the trash yourself.

"Most people who run for elected office are not aware of
what their actual duties will be," Councilwoman Valerie Abbott says. "I didn't.
I said I was going to do things that I couldn't possibly do when I got into
office."

It's not that the candidates are lying on purpose. Rather,
many don't know the law that defines what a council member can and can't do.

Abbott, who is running unopposed this year for her fourth
term, says that she was one of those candidates in 2001. Bill Ricker, who was
then the administrative assistant for Councilman Jimmy Blake, called her to ask
whether she had read the Mayor-Council Act.

She hadn't, she says now. And according to her, not many
candidates do. When she took office, she was surprised how little power a
council member has.

"I would say that 75 percent of the things that people
promise when they are running for office are not their job and they can't do
them," Abbott says. "And then they learn that real quick once they get into
office because the mayor explains it to them."

Under the Mayor-Council Act, Birmingham City Council members
act as the policy-making branch of city government. The council also has the
authority to pass budgets and request information from the administrative side
of city government, but council members cannot give directives to city employees.

That's the mayor's job, but occasionally council members
overstep the line or have trouble explaining the dual roles to their
constituents.

Council President Roderick Royal says he has tried to
explain the separation of powers to constituents and colleagues since he joined
the council in 2001, but not everyone listens. Royal is leaving the council at
the end of this term.

"Probably the clearest example is the U.S. Congress," he says.
"The president administers all departments, appoints cabinet secretaries, and
the Congress passes and makes policy and receives recommendations from the
president. It's the same relationship with the Mayor-Council Act."

That formula has caused tension between councils and mayors,
especially when there has been a strong administrator, Royal says. He cites as
examples the relationship between former Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid and
the City Council led by Council President William Bell, as well as the current
council's relationship with now-Mayor Bell.

"You can't do anything about it," he says. "The departments
are administered by the mayor. You can only do the same thing as a citizen and
turn it into 311 (the city's system for receiving citizen complaints)."

Not only does the Mayor-Council Act forbid a City Council
member from giving a directive to a city employee, it makes such a directive a
crime punishable by removal from office.

Why does the Birmingham Mayor-Council Act exist? This guy. Photo by Robert Adams

Council members might not like those constraints, but the
law exists as it does for a reason, says Bob Corley, professor of history at
UAB.

"After World War II, there was strong move to
professionalize government, instead of small groups of people who decided who
would be in charge of everything," Corley said. "The South began to modernize.
To attract new business, they needed government that was more respected and
that people could count on."

That movement came to a head in 1961, when Freedom Riders
were attacked in Birmingham. Business and civic leaders decided that the city
needed to change.

"The reason they
switched was to get rid of Bull Connor," Corley says. "And they decided that
the only way to get rid of Connor was to change the form of government."

Under the old commission form of government, three elected
commissioners acted as administrators over their respective departments. As
Birmingham public safety commissioner, Connor ran the police department.

But the Mayor-Council Act put all departments under the
mayor, who acted more like a CEO, and created the nine-member council to act as
a sort of board of directors.

Voters approved the new form of government in 1962, and
elected the city's first city council in 1963.

The old system, even today, would have been a nightmare,
Abbott says.

"You see pictures of Bull Connor out there directing people
in the street," Abbott says. "I ask myself, would I want to direct employees in
the street? Hell no."

Nevertheless, voters still expect more from the council than
individual council members can often deliver, and candidates don't help by
making promises that they can't keep.

So what's a voter to do?

Abbott says that you can't rely on a candidate's promises,
even if they are well-meaning. A council member can act as an intermediary with
the mayor and can forward citizens' requests to the mayor's office, but often
that's about it.

Character and experience matter more, she says. Some
candidates might tell a good story on the stump, but the most important thing
the council does is pass the budget and financial experience is much more important.

"The quality of their
character is what the citizens should be looking at, because promises are
rarely ever met," she says. "The reality is that you can try, but there are no
guarantees."

This story was edited at 7:15 a.m. Bill Ricker was Jimmy Blake's council assistant, not his son, David Ricker.

The Political Agenda explores political culture in Birmingham and Alabama. Have a tip? Send it to kwhitmire@al.com.